A Knight in Shining Armor, by Jude Deveraux This essay was originally written as a guest review for the website Dear Author, under another pseudonym (Fallen Professor). I recently found my hard drive copy and wanted to share it here; you can also read the original post, with discussion, at this link. A COUPLE OF … Continue reading Bookish Thoughts: A Knight in Shining Armor
Her Husband's Grave, by P. L. Kane Robyn Adams is a psychologist who works with police departments to track down serial killers. She's just finished one such case (and almost gotten herself killed in the process) when she receives a call from her cousin Vicky, whose husband Simon has been found murdered and buried at … Continue reading Suspense Review: Her Husband’s Grave
Hamnet and Judith, by Maggie O'Farrell In 1596, a young child dies in Stratford. The child has a twin, an older sibling, an mother thought to have special abilities, and a father who is becoming famous in London for his plays. The father is, of course William Shakespeare, but his name is never mentioned in … Continue reading Fiction Review: Hamnet and Judith (Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist)
The Dead Girl Under the Bleachers, by Donna M. Zadunajsky This book actually managed to put me in a reading slump for over a week. It should have been the kind of page-turner that I normally read almost in one sitting, but I ended up slogging through it just to get to the end. The … Continue reading Suspense Review: The Dead Girl Under the Bleachers
A big thank you to Odyssey Books for sending me a copy to review. When No One Is Watching, by Linathi Makanda Linathi Makanda's poetry debut with Odyssey Books is a luminous collection of verse, a meditation on tough topics expressed with grace and wisdom. Family, masculinity, and women's expectations and realities regarding relationships take … Continue reading Poetry Review: When No One Is Watching
War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. War and Peace is a novel that has become almost a punchline; it's used to indicate the tedious and impossible, the most herculean of reading efforts. It's a doorstop of a book, a Pandora's box containing decades of historical events, a large … Continue reading Tweeting Tolstoy: War, Peace, and Pandemic
In the past, I've been terrible about completing shortlist readings for literary prizes. Not because I wasn't interested in the prizes themselves, but because I always found out about the shortlist right before the prize was announced. And I am really not a fast reader, as I explain in part in my post on living … Continue reading Summer Reading Project: Shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction
The Priest, by Tiffany Reisz The Priest is the ninth novel in Reisz's The Original Sinners series (which also includes several novellas and short stories). But it is, according to the official description, an entirely new arc in the series, and "the perfect jumping-on point for new readers." I certainly found this to be true: … Continue reading Romance Review: The Priest
The Baby Group, by Caroline Corcoran A sex tape, a mommy blogger, and an idyllic countryside village are the three main elements in this story of misguided revenge. Scarlett is a recent transplant to a small village near Manchester. During the year of her maternity leave, she has also become something of a celebrity, thanks … Continue reading Suspense Review: The Baby Group
This is a blurb I added to my About page today, but thought I'd throw in as a little random musing of a post as well. Photo by Jess Bailey on Pexels.com Why No Star Ratings? Honestly, I don't feel comfortable rating books with stars or numbers. Back when I was still teaching, grading was … Continue reading Where Are All the Stars?
